دو ماهنامه میکروب شناسی پزشکی ایران
سال پانزدهم شماره 5 (مهر و آبان 1400)

The system of architectural design, space, and installation of facilities and equipment in the medical laboratory is based on a multifaceted structure, which by considering them can increase productivity and profitability to all groups involved in this category. The present study sought to understand and design this structure.

This descriptive-analytical research was carried out by studying the literature.

According to the results of this study, an adequate architectural design for a medical laboratory includes the following points: observing the separation of physical space, proximity of spaces in the laboratory, the principle of flexibility in designing physical space and the ability to develop and expand physical space, space design and requirements for mobility needs of disabled people, designing a desk for the disabled and the elderly, observing the minimum standard of general space, observing the minimum standard of spaces and the number of employees considering their safety.

The design of medical laboratories, taking into account the issues mentioned in this article, will lead to the construction of a place that will not only meet the needs of clients but also provide comfort and safety for staff. Such a laboratory will be more profitable by increasing productivity, which will ultimately lead to a comprehensive profit. But errors in the design and execution of any of these can cause minor and major damages.

 This study aimed to investigate the role and application of medical and health archives in scientific research based on research topics indexed in WOS.

 This study was a descriptive study with a scientometrics approach and the method of co-word analysis and hierarchical clustering and Strategic graph. The research population was scientific products related to medical and health archives. Data analysis was performed by HistCite, Bibexecl, UCINET, Excel and SPSS softwares.

 In the last three decades, 323 related studies were retrieved. The research dissemination has been increasing with an average annual growth rate of 34.87%. The United States and Univ Pittsburgh were ranked first in terms of publishing and citation rates. Iran ranks 14th with 7 researches. The field of GENERAL INTERNAL MEDICINE has had the largest share of 41 research among 88 participating research areas. The mortality keyword has the most frequency. Co-word clustering in medical archival research led to the formation of 7 clusters. Findings from the calculation of the density and centrality scores showed that "Cluster 3: smart Medicine" has the highest centrality and "Cluster 6: Open Data" have the highest density score.

 Medical archives play an important role in discovering the causes of mortality and subsequently reducing mortality, preventing diseases and their risks and prevalence, improving diagnoses, treatments, and ultimately improving the health system.

 Shigella flexneri is a highly contagious Gram-negative bacterium that causes severe diarrhea, especially in children under ten years old. The biofilm formation in this species increases its resistance to antibiotics. Given the important role of toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems in the stability and survival of bacteria under stress condition, this study was aimed to evaluate the expression of genes encoding TA systems and Lon protease (lonp) as the main protein regulating the expression and function of these systems in this microorganism in terms of biofilm formation.

 In this study, the standard Shigella flexneri ATCC 12022 was used. After the bacteria culture on the specific culture medium, the ability to form biofilm was quantitatively evaluated by microtiter plate method. Then, the expression level of the mentioned genes was assessed compared to the control group using real-time PCR.

 The results of microtiter plate test showed that the studied Shigella flexneri was a strong biofilm strain. The qPCR results showed an increase in gene expression of the studied toxins and Lon protease at 8 and 24 h following biofilm formation induction (P<0.01).

 Due to the significant increase in the expression of the studied genes, especially Lon protease, GNAT and maz toxins at 24 h after biofilm formation, they can be potentially used as antimicrobial targets in new studies.

 Wound healing is the result of interactions between cytokines, growth factors, blood, and extracellular matrix. Facing this challenging issue has become one of the essential concerns in health and medical fields, needing different remedies. One of the newest treatments in wound healing is the application of probiotic bacteria. Therefore, the aim of the current study is to evaluate the effect of Bifidobacterium bifidum probiotic bacteria on acute wound healing and exploring the potential of their supernatant on increasing angiogenesis in female mice in the form of biological dressing.

 44 female BALB/c mice were studied into six groups in two phases of 7 and 14 days. After the wounding process, wound sizes were measured by a digital caliper every 48 hours. Mice were dressed and treated. Histological samples were studied, and the results were analyzed statistically.

 Bifidobacterium bifidum probiotic bacteria not only show exciting potential as a therapeutic and effective agent but also our examination proved that application of this probiotic plus Aloe vera hydrogel (experimental group 1) can significantly reduce the wound healing duration and increases angiogenesis (P<0.05).

 According to the findings of this study, the designed biological dressing, including Bifidobacterium bifidum supernatant and Aloe vera hydrogel, can be used in acute wound healing after further studies.

 Quorum sensing (QS) and virulence genes in Pseudomonas aeruginosa causing severe infections in humans. In the present study, the effect of chitosan (CS) and zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) on the expression level of lasI, exoS and toxA genes during lag, exponential-and stationary growth phases of P. aeruginosa were studied.

 CS and ZnO-NPs were synthesized by ionic gelation and ultrasonic methods, respectively. The clinical samples were collected from patients suffering from wound infections from 2018-2019, and preliminary identification of P. aeruginosa has done with the standard biochemical tests and 16S rDNA gene. The virulence genes (lasI, exoS and toxA) were detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Finally, real-time reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR) was performed to detect the expression level of QS and virulence-related genes in samples grown at a medium contain minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of CS and ZnO-NPs.

 CS and ZnO-NPs were successfully prepared with average particle sizes of 20 and 40 nm. The prevalence rate of virulence-related genes among all clinical isolates originated from burn patients was as follows; toxA (100%), exoS (88%), and lasI (56%). The MIC value of CS was equal to 0.5 mg/mL, which is 8-fold lower than that for ZnO-NPs (4 mg/mL). qRT-PCR analysis revealed CS and ZnO-NPs decrease the expression of lasI, exoS, and toxA in clinical P. aeruginosa isolates during the exponential phase compared to other growth phases. toxA+/exoS+/lasI+ isolates exhibited similar patterns of gene expression changes in response to both NPs at all growth phases. Expression of toxA gene downregulated at exponential-and stationary growth phases of ATCC27853 treated with CS and ZnO-NPs.

 The results obtained from this study may provide a better understanding of the expression changes of virulence-related genes throughout different growth phases of P. aeruginosa.

The diagnosis of COVID-19 is an essential step toward controlling the pandemic. For this purpose, a series of laboratory methods have been developed. This study evaluated the efficiency of the ELISA method for COVID-19 IgM and IgG detection.

In this case-control study, 46 blood samples from PCR positive COVID-19 patients and 49 samples from PCR negative COVID-19 subjects were collected. Subsequently, the presence of IgM and IgG in all blood samples was assessed using the Pishtaz Teb ELISA kit.

 The data demonstrated that among 49 PCR negative, 40 (81.6%) were IgM negative and 9 (19.1%) were IgM positive. Besides, out of the 49 PCR-negative patients, 42 (85.7%) and 7 (14.3%) were IgG negative and positive, respectively. In 46 PCR-positive individuals, 40 (87%) were IgM negative, while 6 (13 %) were IgM positive. Of the 46 PCR-positive patients, 24 (52.2%) were IgG negative, and 22(47.8%) were IgG positive.

 Our results showed that detection of SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgM using Pishtaz Teb ELISA kit is not enough for COVID diagnosis, but it can serve as a diagnostic RNA supplement to confirm infection with SARS-CoV-2 in approved clinics and other scientific communities, owing to its easy, rapid, and inexpensive availability.

SARS-CoV-2 is the causative agent of Coronavirus 2019 or COVID-19 in the world. Novel coronavirus disease is a respiratory disease. To date, there have been challenges in the treatment for COVID-19 and emerged new variants like UK B1.1.7. Accordingly, an effective prevention regime is needed for this infection, which covers most variants. The purpose of this research was to predict the conserved epitopes of Spike and Nucleocapsid proteins from SARS-CoV-2 for the design of a novel coronavirus 2019 multi-epitope vaccine using in silico tools.

Computational analysis and immunoinformatics approaches include identification of potential conserve epitopes and selection of epitopes based on allergenicity, toxicity, antigenicity, and molecular docking were used for epitope prediction and screening. In the next step, selected segments of the epitopes were attached by the suitable linkers. Finally, Maltese-bound protein (MBP) as an adjuvant was added to the novel vaccine structure. The secondary and third structures of the designed multi-epitope vaccine were predicted via immunoinformatics algorithms. Predicted structure refined and validated for attaining best stability. In the end, immunoinformatics evaluation, molecular docking, and molecular dynamics were performed to confirm vaccine efficiency. Codon optimization and in silico cloning were done to ensure the expression yield of the novel multi-epitope vaccine in the target host.

 This study showed that our data support the suggestion that the designed vaccine could induce immune responses against SARS-CoV-2 variants.

 The structure designed had acceptable quality with software reviews. Further in vitro and in vivo experiments are needed to confirm the safety and immunogenicity of the candidate vaccine.

 Strangle in the horses is the commonest and the most significant infectious disease. An antibiotic of the first choice, commonly Penicillin, is used for antimicrobial therapy. Due to side effects and resistance against used antibiotics, interest in novel antimicrobial substances from other sources, including herbal medicine as safe agents has been raised. This study evaluated the antibacterial susceptibility profile of Streptococcus equi subsp equi in the confrontation of Trans-cinnamaldehyde, 1, 8 Cineole, and Pulegone on bacterial pathogens isolated from the horse.

 Two hundred clinically isolates were studied by the single disk method to Ampicillin, Ciprofloxacin, Trimethoprim sulfamethoxazole, Gentamicin, Enrofloxacin, Chloramphenicol, Azithromycin, Cefotaxime, Oxytetracycline, Erythromycin, and Penicillin. Paper discs were prepared by impregnation in 10 µL essential oils main compounds (EOMC). The antibacterial activities of Trans-cinnamaldehyde, 1, 8 Cineole, and Pulegone were evaluated by microbroth dilution and disk diffusion methods against isolates of S. equi.

 All the isolates were resistant to Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and Cefotaxime. The maximum growth inhibition zone was related to Oxytetracycline and Ampicillin. The growth inhibition zone diameter was 30 mm, 20 mm, and 26 mm for Trans-cinnamaldehyde, Pulegone, and 1, 8 Cineole, respectively. The results of the Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) and Minimum Bactericidal Concentrations (MBCs) showed that Trans-cinnamaldehyde had the highest antibacterial activity compared to other EOMC against S. equi. This study indicated that Trans-cinnamaldehyde, 1, 8 Cineole, and Pulegone revealed antibacterial properties; therefore, these main constituents of the medicinal plant could be a safe candidate for the new antibacterial products.